Algiz (ᛉ)
Pronunciation: AL-geez · Latin equivalent: Z · Heimdall’s ætt, seventh rune
Name and meaning
Proto-Germanic algiz, “elk” — by way of the Anglo-Saxon poem’s eolh-secg, the elk-sedge: a marsh grass that cuts the hand that grasps it. The shape is the warding posture — arms raised, antlers up — and this is above all the rune of protection.
In the rune poems
Attested only in the Anglo-Saxon poem, as the sedge that wounds every man who touches it — protection by being costly to attack. The rune’s shape survives in the Younger Futhark but repurposed; the protective reading rests on the elder name and verse.
Upright
Warding, sanctuary, the guard up in time. Protection both taken and given — the hedge around the hall, the instinct that says step back a moment before the danger shows. Many read it too as the reach upward: the open hand toward the divine.
Merkstave
The guard down or turned: vulnerability, danger disguised as shelter, protection withdrawn — or the sedge cutting the one who planted it. Look hard at what you have trusted to keep you safe.
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